ARRSE have partnered with Armadillo Merino to bring you an ARRSE exclusive, generous discount offer on their full price range.
To keep you warm with the best of Merino gear, visit www.armadillomerino.co.uk and use the code: NEWARRSE40 at the checkout to get 40% off!
This superb deal has been generously offered to us by Armadillo Merino and is valid until midnight on the the 28th of February.

What's an anarchist then?

Go to page

ADC

There are few growth industries in these troubled times but it would appear being an anarchist is one of them. The people who wrecked central London earlier this year were not spoiled middle class students like the revolting Charlie Gilmour who were miffed that we would not now pay for their higher education so they could enter politics for free. They were anarchists.

The fruit loops camping out at Dale Farm looking forward to a rumble with the fuzz when the illegal huts of the 'travellers' are torn down are anarchists. In fact the rent-a-mob that will attach itself to any cause or demo - step forward the anarchists.

The latest Muppet to jump on the band wagon is Jonnie Marbles, aka Jonathan May-Bowles (a proper anarchist name if ever I heard one) who pied Rupert Murdoch and got 2 weeks in nick for it. At the time he billed himself as a 'comedian' although no journalist could unearth anyone who had ever paid to see him perform. He was on Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 today basking in his new found fame and spouting utter crap ("I cried when I was sentenced not for me, but because I would miss summer with my 9 year old son Josh". The May-Bowles clan has got the hang of anarchist names big style, eh). May-Bowles now bills himself as... you guessed it... 'A comedian and an anarchist'.

Wiki says an anarchist is... "the term describes the political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy"

So what is the lovely Jonathan May-Bowles doing spouting on that organ of the state, the BBC?

I assume Jonathan May-Bowles and his black clad demonstrating chums have money in their pocket, possibly carry credit cards? How come when money is perhaps the ultimate tool of the state they claim to hate? Has anyone ever met a real anarchist? In a long life I have met some well dodgy people but only ever one who I can say really was an anarchist.

ADC

LE

The majority of so-called anarchists would not recognise a state of anarchy if they saw it. A genuine anarchy is not just a lack of rules. It is a colective in which rules are not required as everyone understands their part and acts for the benefit of the common good. In a way it is similar to communism in a pure form. In reality it can/could only work in small groups and is highly improbable as a modern social/political solution. Anarchy works well for Ants and Bees.

LE

I've always thought those self-styled 'anarchists' caught protesting in London against government cuts - ie demanding that the government do more - should be sentenced to a long stretch in some kind of education-based hard labour camp.

LE

The majority of so-called anarchists would not recognise a state of anarchy if they saw it. A genuine anarchy is not just a lack of rules. It is a colective in which rules are not required as everyone understands their part and acts for the benefit of the common good. In a way it is similar to communism in a pure form. In reality it can/could only work in small groups and is highly improbable as a modern social/political solution. Anarchy works well for Ants and Bees.

LE

Not being picky, but I keep honey bees and I don't think they are anarchic at all.

With the Queen, the Drones (the Princes) and the Workers I see them as being the perfect society as advocated by Machiavelli.

However when rendered Queenless for whatever reason they do become anarchic - nothing gets done properly within the hive without the organisation that a Queen gives a colony and they soon dwindle and die.

I've just realised what a random and sad post this is, but **** it I'm going to stick it up anyway!

LE

Micawber, you do not understand anarchy. Anarchy IS NOT the abscence of order. It is the absence of rules. A Bee colony has perfect order without any rules. It is a perfect anarchy. when the queen dies it is no longer anarchy-it becomes chaotic, Chaos and anarchy are not the same thing.

ADC

Micawber, you do not understand anarchy. Anarchy IS NOT the abscence of order. It is the absence of rules. A Bee colony has perfect order without any rules. It is a perfect anarchy. when the queen dies it is no longer anarchy-it becomes chaotic, Chaos and anarchy are not the same thing.

LE

LE

To be fair, therere as many different definitions of anarchy as there are anarchists. Syndicalists, primitivists and all sorts of things in between. Once in a while you even find one who isnt a woolly-minded utopianist, which makes a nice change.

LE

Micawber, you do not understand anarchy. Anarchy IS NOT the abscence of order. It is the absence of rules. A Bee colony has perfect order without any rules. It is a perfect anarchy. when the queen dies it is no longer anarchy-it becomes chaotic, Chaos and anarchy are not the same thing.

ADC

On ROPS

There are a few types of anarchism, Black Anarchism which heads toward White Anarchism, and Anarcho-Communism; I used to occasionally travel around 'with' some Black-Anarchists called spiral tribe, and had a well known anarcho-communist professor offer me advice on my academics...

The basic premise for Black and Anarcho-communism is the old axiom 'from chaos comes order' premising a natural order without need for codified law. I'm rather more Hobbesian in thinking we are already moving out of chaos toward the white anarchism. This may also answer why so many bourgeois have a leaning toward Anarcho ideologies, if you have a cynical slant on life you'll work out why...they don't want the game to finish until they have the chance to be Platonic philosopher kings; they miss the detail that they've had precisely the same amount of aeons as everyone else, well...almost.